2014 Edition

Editorial

Weakened by a financial and moral crisis, Europe doesn’t make anybody dream anymore. In these times of Euroscepticism, it’s about reaffirming that beyond the pressures of the economy and of the market, there is a European project that makes us stronger and unifies us. It is based on the power of art and culture. Europe feels downhearted? Let’s unable it to look ahead. Let’s give it colours, humours, visions, pipe dreams. Let’s give it a horizon. That’s what the Circulation(s) festival, that celebrates this year its fourth edition, tries to do. Created in 2011 by the Fetart association, Circulation(s) is up today the only festival in France dedicated to young European photography.

Thanks to its success, the event takes a new momentum and settles in the CENTQUATRE-PARIS, through an invitation of José Manuel Gonzàlez, for five weeks of free access exhibition. In this agitated place, open to all cultures, vibrating, forty-five young photographers offer their vision of the world and communicate through their work. The selection of these artists was made by a jury, after an international call for candidates. It is also based on two European structures, the Belfast School of Art, University of Ulster (Ireland) and the Galerija Fotografija in Ljubljana (Slovenia) as well as a Carte blanche given to Xavier Canonne, director of the Musée de la photographie of Charleroi (Belgium) and sponsor of the current edition.

Here are the pictures of young Finnish, Spanish, Slovenian, Irish, Polish photographers… They get their inspiration from the tradition of photoreportage or they explore the possibilities of photography. They tell stories about octogenarian cheer leaders, castles, destroyed forests or polar nights. They are carried by the intimate or the universal, the absurd or rage. They are the witnesses of our time and the talents of tomorrow. In the flood of pictures that invades us today, they built those that make us stronger, more lucid, more combative and revive the ardour of the poet Francis Ponge who wrote: “That a flame is necessary, there is no doubt. Why? To be an eyecatcher. To catch somebody ? But for yourself as well. To burn a few pieces of rubbish that are stuck in your life pipe. To clean, to clear out, to vacuum, to reinitiate life.”